An Oxford professor has earned the wrath of his students for espousing anti-immigration views and co-founding a controversial pressure group.
The university is under pressure to terminate Coleman
LONDON: An Oxford professor has earned the wrath of his students for espousing anti-immigration views and co-founding a controversial pressure group that is vehemently against migration into Britain.
The top British university is under pressure from its students to terminate Professor David Coleman’s tenure because of his anti-immigration views and have launched a petition garnering support from hundreds of students.
Coleman is a professor of demography at Oxford and is also the co-founder of Migrationwatch, a pressure group which is in the forefront of stopping migration into the UK because they consider it to be “too high.”
Professor Coleman has claimed in signed articles that immigrants had contributed the equivalent of “a Mars bar a month” to the well-being of the UK. Mars bar is a popular chocolate which is touted as providing energy. Infuriated by his comments, the Oxford branch of Students Action on Research (Star) launched a petition to have Coleman sacked.
The petition also urges him to stop using his academic title when appearing in the media as his views and his association with Migrationwatch bring disrepute to Oxford University.
The University has not given into the student’s demands and in fact many academics have accused the students behind the campaign of trying to stifle free speech.
“We are committed to academic freedom. He is permitted to air his views and he hasn’t done anything illegal. I don’t think we’ll be sacking someone just for their opinions,” a spokesperson for Oxford University told DNA.
The row took another turn when DAvid Coleman defended his views in a signed article on the front page of The Daily Telegraph newspaper on Thursday saying the content of the petition was only worthy of a “gamma minus,” and that “my inclination would be to send it back unmarked.”
Kieran Hutchinson Dean, one of the organisers of the petition said Star did not expect the university to agree to their demands but they would continue their fight.
“Main point of the petition is to raise awareness of his views and affiliations among the students,” said Hutchinson Dean.
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